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In the Struggle for Equality, We Choose Dignity and Respect

For more than a decade, the ACLU of Pennsylvania has advocated for protections from discrimination for gay and transgender Pennsylvanians. We have always known that the opposition would get uglier as we got closer to passage. And now that we have a coalition of business and academic interests at our back called Pennsylvania Competes and some of the most prominent members of the General Assembly in support, “the antis” – in the parlance of advocates- have sunk to their lowest level yet, as was inevitable.

The Pennsylvania Fairness Act- House Bill 1510 and Senate Bill 974- amends the commonwealth’s non-discrimination law to include sexual orientation and gender identity or expression as protected classes in employment, housing, and public services. It levels the playing field for gay and transgender Pennsylvanians. We’re the only state in the northeast that does not have some form of this protection.

A few weeks ago the Pennsylvania Family Institute- the state’s leading anti-gay, anti-trans, anti-woman advocacy group- launched a new campaign called “defend my privacy” that claims that the Pennsylvania Fairness Act would make it illegal to have gender-specific public restrooms. That’s not a joke and it’s not from The Onion. That’s actually what they say.

The areas in which the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act provides protection from discrimination include “public accommodations.” This means that people cannot be denied services based on the protected classes in the act. Think of an interracial couple being denied a wedding cake from a baker because of their race. Or a public golf course refusing to allow women to play there.

The antis have taken a bill that is intended to stop discrimination against gay and transgender people in their daily lives and twisted it into an attack on the simple act of peeing in peace. Last year Brae Carnes, a trans woman from Canada, and Michael Hughes, a trans man from Minnesota, took on the absurdity of the antis’ argument by posting pictures of themselves in public bathrooms of their assigned gender at birth.

Transgender women are women. And transgender men are men. That’s it.

At the ACLU of Pennsylvania, we share the values of privacy and public safety. In my 11 years here, I cannot think of another organization in this state that has done more to protect the right to privacy than us. The issues are too numerous to list.*

Privacy and public safety are not compromised by ensuring that people can use public services based on their gender identity. The city of Harrisburg has had an ordinance like the Pennsylvania Fairness Act for more than 30 years without complaint. If there were problems in Harrisburg or in any of the 30+ municipalities with such ordinances, I can assure you that the antis would tell us.

But the rhetoric of the antis- from the Pennsylvania Family Institute to the advocates and politicians behind recent anti-LGBT legislation in North Carolina and Mississippi- does compromise public safety. It inflames hostility toward transgender Americans. According to the FBI, hate crimes against transgender people tripled in 2014. And advocates believe the actual victimization number is much higher.

In advocating for the Pennsylvania Fairness Act, the ACLU of Pennsylvania and its allies have chosen a campaign of respect, dignity, and basic human decency. It is a shame that the people who oppose this bill cannot offer transgender Pennsylvanians the same.
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*But here are a few. Women’s reproductive healthcare, the Real ID Act, two-party consent in the state Wiretap Act, DNA collection from people not convicted of a crime, protecting data in prescription drug monitoring, the PATRIOT Act, anonymity for parents who give their biological children for adoption, access to location data gathered by EZPass. Etc., etc., etc.

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Andy Hoover joined the ACLU of Pennsylvania in December 2004, as a community organizer and became legislative director in 2008. As the organization’s lead lobbyist, Andy largely deals with civil liberties and civil rights issues at the state capitol.